Alex Albon reveals excitement ahead of experiencing his first Sprint weekend

Williams driver Alex Albon has said that he is excited to see what the Sprint format throws up in terms of challenges this weekend at Imola, as he experiences it for the first time.

The Sprint format is back for its second year and for the first time this season, with Saturday set to host the shorter event at the Imola circuit.

The result of that, as it did last season, will set the grid for Sunday’s main Grand Prix whilst there are points now on offer for the top eight, running from 8 for first place through to 1 for 8th place, in a bid to give drivers more incentive to push on the Saturday and take some risks.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the tweaks change the action, then, and Albon is simply looking forward to trying it for the first time, with him not on the grid in 2021 when it was first introduced:

“It’s my first time competing in the Sprint event format, so I’m looking forward to the slightly different approach to the weekend and both the challenges and opportunities it will bring.

“Historically the team has gone quite well at Imola, so we’ll get our heads down and see what we can do. We had a great race out in Melbourne and the team did an incredible job with the strategy, so hopefully we can use that momentum to keep pushing this weekend.”

Albon scored his first championship point of the season last time out in Australia with a fine drive that saw him complete 57 laps on the same set of tyres, before he pitted to take the last lap on a mandatory changed set.

The delight in the Williams garage was plain to see, too, and the hope now has to be that they can build on the result.

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